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OBfJiKVATlOSs 

ON 

THE SLAVERY 

OF THE 



THEIR DESCENDANTS. 

r J 

AND 


ON THE USE OF THE PRODUCE 

OF TIIEIR 

LABOUR- 


RECOMMENDED TO THE SERIOUS PERUSAL, AND IMPARTIAL 
CONSIDERATION OF THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED 
STATES OF AMERICA, AND OTHERS CONCERNED. 


BY ELIAS HICKS. 


Open ihy mouth fur the dumb in the cause of all such as arc 
up-pointed to destruction. 

“ Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the 
poor and needy .” Peov. xxxi. 8, £. 

NEW-YORK: 

.PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL WOOD, 

NO. 357 , PEARL-STREET. 

1814 . 

V 
















































■ * 


* • 















- 






PRE FA CE. 

w hereas, I some time past published certain obser¬ 
vations on the Slavery of the Africans and their descen¬ 
dants, and on the consumption of the produce of their 
labour, comprehended principally in 19 Queries and 
Answers, the design of which was to impress on the 
minds of my friends and felioiv-citizens, and others con¬ 
cerned, as far as might be, by fair reasoning, a full sense 
of the abhorrent cruelty and unrighteousness of holding 
our fellow creatures in bondage, and wresting from 
them, by violence, the produce of their labour; which 
being well received by many, and affording reason to 
hope they were profitable to some, I was induced to 
believe a second edition might be useful. 

I have, therefore, revised the original, and endea¬ 
voured to compress it as much as the subjects would 
admit; and have added some quotations from an ano¬ 
nymous pamphlet, published sometime since in England, 
which are so correspondent with the before mentioned 
observations, as to have a tendency, in my opinion, to 
elucidate and enforce them. 

I shall only add, as a farther apology for the present 
edition, that the evil still continues : that there are still 
slave holders, and consumers of the produce of the la¬ 
bour of slaves, wrested from them by violence. 

And as the slave holder can have no moral right 
whatever to the man he stiles his slave, nor to the pro¬ 
duce of his labour ; he cannot possibly convey any to 
a second person by any transfer he can make : for, hav¬ 
ing nothing but a criminal possession himself, he can 
convey nothing to a second person but the same posses¬ 
sion : and should this possession be continued through a 
line of transfer to the twentieth person, still it would be 
nothing more than the same criminal possession that was 
vested in the first possessor, and would convey no moral 
right whatever. And should any other person come 
forward, and, by the same mode of violence and pow¬ 
er that was exercised by the first possessor, in reducing 
the man he stiles his slave to the abject state of slavery, 
and by which he violently took from him the produce 
of his labour, forcibly take from such twentieth or more 
remote possessor, the slave and the produce of his la- 


PREFACE. 


iv. 

bour, the right of such person, in point of equity, to 
such slave and the produce of his labour would be just 
equal to the right of such remote possessor ; as neither 
of them could have had any more than a criminal pos¬ 
session : and whether that possession is obtained by vio¬ 
lence or by transfer, (if the person who receives it by 
transfer is informed of the criminal circumstances,) it can 
make no possible difference, except that one is protected 
by the indulgence of a partial law of the country we live 
in, and the other is not. By which undeniable proposi¬ 
tion, it appears, that when any man becomes possessed of 
a slave, or the produce of his labour, wrested from him 
without his consent, whether it be by transfer or other¬ 
wise, any other person who has power so to do, may, by 
violence, take from such possessor, such slave and the 
produce of his labour : and when he has in that way 
obtained possession thereof, he has as good a right to 
such slave and to use the produce of his labour as the 
former; and the former can have no just cause to com¬ 
plain of such usage, as he is only paid in his own coin. 
For, although the first possessor committed the act of 
violence, when he took from the man he stiles his slave 
his liberty, and compelled him to work, and by the same 
cruel force, took from him the produce of his labour ; 
yet, every purchaser of such slave and the produce of 
his labour, if he is apprized of the criminal circumstance 
attending it, is as guilty as the first perpetrator ; and 
should such slave and the produce of his labour pass 
through the hands of twenty persons, all knowing at the 
time of transfer the criminal circumstances attending, 
each would be guilty of the entire crime of the first per¬ 
petrator. This being assented to, and 1 conceive it is 
incontrovertible, I have a hope that this edition may 
produce a good effect, and tend to raise up many more 
faithful advocates in the cause of this deeply oppressed 
people, who may be willing to suffer every necessary 
privation, rather than be guilty of the least thing that 
may, in any degree, possibly strengthen the hands of their 
oppressors. I therefore recommend this little treatise to 
the candid and impartial consideration of the reader, 
and subscribe myself his sincere friend, E. HICKS. 


OBSERVATIONS 


ON THE 


SLAVERY 


OF THE 

AFRICANS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS , &c. 


THE Slavery of the Africans and their 
descendants, has become so established by 
long continuance, and the force of an un¬ 
righteous custom ; that many persons con¬ 
sider the practice not only admissible, but 
consistent with justice and social order. 

But I am led to doubt the possibility of 
any rational, moral person being thus cir¬ 
cumstanced, unless he is first greatly blind¬ 
ed by selfishness and partiality ; as I consider 
it a matter of fact, obviously clear to every 
rational, contemplative mind, that neither 
custom nor education, nor any law of men 
or nations, can alter the nature of justice 
and equity ; which will, and must, essentially 
and eternally, rest upon their own proper 
base, as laid down by the great Christian 
Law-giver, viz. “ Therefore, all things, what- 


6 


soever ye would that men should do to you, 
do ye even so to diem : for this is the law 
and the prophets ” Hence, I conceive, it is a 
most necessary and important Christian duty, 
for all those who art either directly or indi¬ 
rectly concerned in the slavery of their fellow 
creatures, seriously and impartially to consid¬ 
er the manner and way in which the slavery 
of the Africans was first introduced ; and by 
what means it has been so long continued ; 
not doubting, but that every upright, impar¬ 
tial mind, by a full examination into the 
subject, will readily discover, that it was 
first introduced by fraud and force, and con¬ 
tinued by an unjust and tyrannical power : 
and will, therefore, be induced to restore to 
them their just and native rights, as free 
men, which no law nor power of men or 
nations ought to deprive them of without 
their consent 

It is generally acknowledged, by the peo¬ 
ple of every enlightened country, and par¬ 
ticularly by those who believe in revelation, 
as testified of in the Scriptures of Truth, 
that man is a moral agent, (that is, free to 
act, with the restriction of accountability 
to his Creator,) agreeable to the declara¬ 
tion of the prophet Ezekiel ; through 
whom, Jehovah, in his benignity and jus¬ 
tice, claims the right of sovereignty over 
the children of men : “ All souls are mine ; 
as the soul of the father, so also the soul of 


the son is mine : the soul that sinneth, it shall 
die : the son shall not bear the iniquity of 
the father, neither shall the father bear the 
iniquity of the son !” This Scripture tes¬ 
timony, perfectly consonant with reason and 
justice, not only proves, that every man is to 
bear his own iniquity, but that he also stands 
fully indemnified thereby, from all the 
iniquity of his predecessors ; and likewise 
fully establishes man’s free-agency : and, of 
course, proves, that every moral agent born 
into the world, (whatever the conduct and 
situation of his parents may have been) 
is born free : upon which undeniable 
truth, I shall found the following Queries 
and Answers : 

Query l. Where not the people of Africa, 
at the time when the Europeans first visited 
their coasts, a free people, possessed of the 
same natural and unalienable rights, as the 
people of any other nation ? 

Answer . They certainly were : for, when 
the Europeans, whether by fraud or force, 
or by purchase from those who had stolen or 
taken them prisoners in war, became pos¬ 
sessed of a number of the people of Africa, 
and by violence reduced them to the wretch¬ 
ed and degraded state of Slaves ; at the 
same time it would have been as right and 
as consistent with equity and moral justice, 
for the Africans to have done the same by 


8 


them, had it been in their power : by which 
undeniable proposition, it is evident, that the 
slavery of the Africans is the product of 
mere power, without any possible plea of 
right: and that the same power of force, 
fraud, and tyrannical cruelty, that was exer¬ 
cised in reducing the people of Africa at 
first, to the miserable and wretched state of 
slaves, has, in like manner, in a continual 
state of war, been exercised on all the de¬ 
scendants of those unhappy people that are 
held as slaves, from generation to genera¬ 
tion, down to the present day : it being an 
undeniable truth, that no rational creature 
can be any longer a slave, than while the 
force of war is operating upon him : and 
as before proved irufn Scripture, and moral 
justice, that every child of an African, born 
in America, or elsewhere, is born free : 
therefore, he suffers the same cruel force of 
fraud and power while continued under the 
galling yoke of slavery, as was exercised 
on his predecessors. 

The lust of power, and the pride of con¬ 
quest, have doubtless produced instances far 
too numerous of man enslaved by man. 
But we, in an enlightened age, have greatly 
surpassed, in brutality and injustice, the 
most ignorant and barbarous ages ; and 
while we are pretending to the finest feelings 
of humanity, are exercising unprecedented 
cruelty. We have planted slavery in the 


9 


rank soil of sordid avarice : and the product 
has been misery in the extreme. We have 
ascertained, by a course of experiments in 
cruelty, the least portion of nourishment re¬ 
quisite to enable man to linger a few years 
in misery; the greatest quantity of labour, 
which, in such a situation, the extreme of 
punishment can extort; and the utmost de¬ 
gree of pain, labour and hunger united, that 
the human frame can endure. In vain have 
such scenes been developed. The wealth 
derived from the horrid traffic, has created 
an influence that secures its continuance ; 
unless the people at large shall refuse to re¬ 
ceive the produce of robbery and murder.” 

Q. 2. Under what name or descriptive 
mode of property are the slaves to be con¬ 
sidered, in relation to the man who holds 
them as such ? 

A . The slaves being taken by violence, 
either directly or indirectly, contrary to their 
own wills, and in direct opposition to all the 
power of self defence, which they are capa¬ 
ble of exerting, whether they are taken pri¬ 
soners of war or stolen, or decoyed on ship¬ 
board by the slave merchant, and then forci¬ 
bly confined and carried off; it must be ac¬ 
knowledged, they are taken in a state of war, 
and considered by the captor as a prize : 
therefore, the only true title and description 
of property they can possibly bear, is prize 
goods. 


10 


Q. 3. Is not the produce of the slave’s 
labour likewise prize goods ? 

A. It certainly is: for the man, who, by 
mere power and violence, without any just 
plea of right, not only holds them as slaves, 
but takes from them, in the same cruel and 
arbitrary manner, the proceeds of their la¬ 
bour, without their consent, thereby places 
himself in a state of continual and actual 
war with his slaves. And, moreover, as the 
stealing or taking a man by violence, and 
depriving him of his liberty, and reducing 
him to the wretched and helpless state of a 
slave, is the highest grade of felony, and is 
done purposely to profit by the slave’s la¬ 
bour ; therefore, the produce of the slave’s 
labour is the highest grade of prize goods, 
next to his person. 

Q 4 Does the highway robber, that 
meets his fellow-citizen on the highway, and 
robs him of all the property he has in his 
present possession, and then leaves him at 
liberty, without injuring his person, commit 
as high #n act of felony, as he that steals or 
buys, or takes a man by violence, and re¬ 
duces him to the wretched and degraded 
state of a slave for life ? 

A. No ! in no wise. Which answer is 
founded on the self evident proposition, 
that it is more criminal to rob a man of his 
liberty and property, than only to rob him 
of his property. 


11 


Q 5. Does it lessen the criminality and 
wickedness of reducing our fellow creatures 
to the abject state of slavery, and continuing 
them therein, because the practice is toler¬ 
ated by the laws of the country we live in ? 

A. No! by no means. Because, every 
rational creature knows, or ought to know, 
that no laws of men or nations, can alter the 
nature of immutable justice. The crimin¬ 
ality remains as great in all cases of slavery, 
when inflicted without any criminality of the 
individual made a slave, under the sanction 
of law, as when it is not; and in some cases, 
greater : as in the instance of those govern¬ 
ments, where they are not only guilty of the 
cruelty and oppression of reducing, by mere 
power, without any possible plea of right, 
their fellow-creatures who have equally a 
right with then)selves to liberty, and the 
purchase of redemption by a Saviour’s 
blood, to the abject and wretched state of 
slaves, but are adding sin to sin, by making 
and continuing cruel laws to hold them still 
longer under the galling yoke. 

Q 6. Would it be right and consistent 
with justice and equity, for the legislatures 
of the several states, and others concerned, 
to make laws entirely to abolish slavery in 
their respective states ? 

A. It would, doubtless, be entirely right, 
and perfectly consistent with equity and jus¬ 
tice to make such laws ; and nothing, I ap- 


12 


prebend, can exculpate them from the charge 
of blood-guiltiness short of so doing : as, 
no doubt, many of the poor victims of sla¬ 
very suffer daily to the shedding of their 
blood, under the hands of some of the cruel 
men who pretend to be their masters, be¬ 
cause, they do not at all times, immediately 
submit to their cruel and arbitrary wills. 

Q. 7. Would it not give just occasion for 
those who still have slaves in their posses¬ 
sion, and especially to such as have lattly 
purchased them at a dear rate, to complain 
of wrong in thus taking from them, without 
their consent, what they esteem as their real 
property ? 

A . The making and enforcing such laws 
cannot possibly give just occasion for any 
such complaint; as it is impossible for any 
man to gain any just property in a rational 
being, as a slave, without his consent; for, 
neither the slave dealer, nor the planter can 
have any moral right to the person of him 
they stile their slave, to his labour, or to the 
produce of it; so, they can convey no right 
in such person, nor in the produce of his 
labour to another; and whatever number of 
hands they may pass through, (if the crim¬ 
inal circumstances appertaining thereto be 
known to them at the time of the transfer,) 
they can only have a criminal possession ; 
and the money paid either for the slave or 
for the produce of his labour, is paid to 


13 


obtain that criminal possession, and can con¬ 
fer no moral right whatever ; and ii the 
death of the person called a slave, be occa¬ 
sioned by the criminal possession, the crim¬ 
inal possessor is guilty of murder ; and we 
who have knowingly done any act which 
might occasion his being in that situation, 
are accessaries to the murder, before the 
fact ; as by receiving the produce of his la¬ 
bour, we are accessaries to the robbery after 
the fact. Therefore, I conceive, it must 
appear clear and agreeable to truth and jus¬ 
tice, that a man who should dare to be so 
hardy as to buy a fellow creature, whose 
liberty is withheld from him by violence and 
injustice, ought not only to be obliged to set 
him free, and to forfeit the purchase money, 
but likewise to make full satisfaction to the 
person he had injured, by such purchase. 

Q. 8, As the Legislature of the State of 
New-York has passed a law, declaring that 
every child, born in this state of a woman 
held as a slave, shall be free, the males at 
twenty eight years of age, and the females 
at twenty-five ; can such a law be considered 
as doing full justice to that injured people ? 

A . Although such might have been the un¬ 
just bias, that too generally prevailed on the 
minds of the inhabitants of this State, at the 
time of making the law alluded to in the 
query, that it was the best step the Legisla¬ 
ture could then take ; nevertheless, in my 


14 


opinion, it fell very far short of doing them 
that full justice to which they are entitled ; 
for, as all children bom of white women in 
this state, are free at the age of twenty-one 
and eighteen years, according to their sex, 
and as the Africans and their descendants 
are not here in their own wills, nor agreeable 
to their own choice, but wholly in conse¬ 
quence of the will and pleasure of the white 
citizens of this State ; therefore, it is im¬ 
possible, in point of justice, that any disad¬ 
vantage or penalty should attach to them, as 
a consequence of their being here : but as 
free born men and women, they have a right 
to demand their freedom at the same age as 
other citizens ; and to deny them of it, is 
depriving them of their just ri^ht. 

Q 9. What measures can be adopted by 
the Legislature and citizens of New-York, 
and others concerned, in order to exculpate 
tlumselves from the guilt of that atrocious 
crime of holding the Africans and their de¬ 
scendants so long in slavery ? 

A. The least that can be done, in order to 
effect the salutary end contemplated by the 
query, would be to declare freedom to every 
slave in the state, and to make provision by 
law for the education of all minors that are 
in a state of slavery ; compelling their mas¬ 
ters, or those who have the charge of them, 
to instruct them so as to keep their own ac¬ 
counts, and that they be set at liberty, the 


15 


males at twenty-one and females at eighteen 
years of age : and further, that some lawful 
and reasonable step be taken, to compensate 
such slaves as have been held in bondage 
beyond that age, for such surplus service. 

Q iO. By what class of the people is the 
slavery of the Africans and their descendants 
supported and encouraged? 

A . Principally by the purchasers and con¬ 
sumers of the produce of the slaves’ labour ; 
as the profits arising from the produce of 
their labour, is the only stimulus or induce¬ 
ment for making slaves. 

“ The laws of our country may indeed 
prohibit us the sweets of the sugar cane,’’and 
other articles of the West-Indies and south¬ 
ern states, that are the produce of the slave’s 
labour, “unless we will receive it through the 
medium of slavery ; they may hold it to our 
lips, steeped in the blood of our fellow crea¬ 
tures, but they cannot compel us to accept 
the loathsome potion With us it rests, 
either to receive it and be partners in the 
crime, or to exonerate ourselves from guilt, 
by spurning from us the temptation. For 
let us not think, that the crime rests alone 
with those who conduct the traffic, or the 
Legislature by which it is protected. If we 
purchase the commodity, we participate in 
the crime. The slave dealer, the slave hold¬ 
er, and the slave driver, are virtually the 
agents of the consumer, and may be consid- 


16 


ered as employed and hired by him, to pro¬ 
cure the commodity. For, by holding out 
the temptation, he is the original cause, the 
first mover in the horrid process ; and every 
distinction is done away by the moral maxim, 
That whatever we do by another , we do our¬ 
selves. 

“ Nor are we by any means warranted to 
consider our individual share in producing 
these evils in a trivial point of view : the 
consumption of Sugar” and other articles of 
slavery “ in this country is so immense, that 
the quantity commonly used by individuals 
will have an important effect.” 

Q. 11. What effect would it have on the 
slave holders and their slaves, should the 
people of the United States of America and 
the inhabitants of Great Britain, refuse to 
purchase or make use of any goods that are 
the produce of slavery ? 

A. It would doubtless have a particular 
effect on the slave holders, by circumscrib¬ 
ing their avarice, and preventing their heap¬ 
ing up riches, and living in a state of luxury 
and excess on the gain of oppression : and 
it might have the salutury effect of convin¬ 
cing them of the unrighteousness and cruelty 
of holding their fellow creatures in bond¬ 
age ; and it would have a blessed and ex¬ 
cellent effect on the poor afflicted slaves; 
as it would immediately ameliorate their 
wretched condition and abate their cruel 


17 


bondage; for I have been informed, and 
reason naturally dictates to every one who 
has made right observations on men and 
things, that the higher the price of such 
produce is, the harder they are driven at 
their work. 

And should the people of the United 
States, and the inhabitants of Great Britain, 
withdraw from a commerce in, and the use 
ol the produce of slavery, it would greatly 
lessen the price of those articles, and be a 
very great and immediate relief to the poor, 
injured, and oppressed slaves, whose blood 
is continually crying from the ground for 
justice, as their lives are greatly shortened, 
and many of them do not live out half their 
days by reason of their cruel bondage. 

“ If we as individuals concerned in purcha¬ 
sing and consuming the produce of slavery, 
should imagine that our share in the transac¬ 
tion is so minute, that it cannot perceptibly 
increase the injury ; let us recollect, that, 
though numbers partaking of a crime may 
diminish the shame, they cannot diminish its 
turpitude ; can we suppose, that any injury 
of an enormous magnitude can take place, 
and the criminality be destroyed, merely 
by the criminals becoming so numerous 
as to render their particular shares indis¬ 
tinguishable ? Where an hundred assas¬ 
sins to plunge their daggers into their vic¬ 
tim, though each might plead, that without 


18 


his assistance the crime would have been 
completed, and that his poniard neither oc¬ 
casioned nor accelerated the murder ; yet, 
every one of them would be guilty of the 
entire crime. For, into how many parts 
soever a criminal action may be divided, the 
crime itself rests entire and complete on ev¬ 
ery perpetrator. 

“ But, waving this latter consideration, and 
even supposing for a moment, that the evil 
has an existence from causes totally indepen¬ 
dent of us, yet it exists ; and as we have it in 
our power jointly with others to remedy it, it 
is undoubtedly our duty to contribute our 
share, in hope that others will theirs ; and to 
act that part from conscience, which we 
should from inclination in similar cases tnat 
interested our feelings for instance, let us 
suppose that the way for obtaining slaves 
from Africa was entirely intercepted, and no 
other place opened for obtaining any, except 
in the rivers Delaware and 'Hudson, in 
North America ; that the slave traders were 
continually infesting the shores of those riv¬ 
ers, as the only places to be insulted with im¬ 
punity ; that they frequently kidnapped, and 
sometimes b) force carried off numbers of 
the inhabitants to the West-Indies, and sold 
them as slaves, among whom were many of 
our fathers and brothers, with their wives 
and children We now view them all hand¬ 
cuffed, two and two together, crowded down 


19 


between the ship’s decks, and so closely 
stowed, as to be almost suffocated ; in con¬ 
sequence of which, a number sicken and 
die, which to them is a very happy release, 
when compared with the still more cruel suf¬ 
ferings that await the survivors. We next 
behold them in port, and the day of sale ar¬ 
rives, when they are taken from on ship¬ 
board, and driven like a herd of swine to 
market, but worse treated, being manacled 
together. They are here herded in a pen or 
yard, like the beasts of the field, exposed to 
public sale, and without regard to sex or age 
examined by those brutal men, who are to 
be their purchasers, as naked as they were 
born : and, when one is struck off to any 
bidder, a red hot iron is ready to brand the 
poor victim with the name of his tyrant pur¬ 
chaser. This leads to a scene still more 
grievous, still more deeply afflicting. All 
nature is forced to yield, when the husband 
is separated from a beloved wife, and a wife 
from a beloved husband, who had been for 
many years the joy of her life, and who she 
had expected would have been the strength 
and comfort of her declining years; but 
now, alas ! they are torn asunder, like bone 
from bone : a heart rending separation takes 
place, without the small indulgence of taking 
a sympathetic farewell of each other, or the 
possibility of indulging the most distant 
hope of seeing each other again. We be- 


20 


hold the fond children, with ghastly look and 
frighted eyes, cling to their beloved parents, 
not to be separated from them, but by the 
lash of their cruel drivers, who make the 
blood to start at every stroke on their man¬ 
gled bodies. We next, with heavy hearts 
and minds overwhelmed with pity, follow 
them to their destined labour in the planta¬ 
tion field, and by the morning dawn, we hear 
them summoned to their daily task, by the 
clashing of cow-skin scourges in the hands 
of their hard hearted overseers. And should 
any of them, in consequence of fatigue and 
loss of strength, fall a little behind their fel¬ 
low sufferers, they are immediately reminded 
of it by the lash of their cruel drivers. But 
here I must stop, as it is too much for nature 
to pursue farther the dreadfully degrading 
and cruel theme ! And is it not enough to 
awaken and arouse to sympathy the hardest 
heart, and lead it to exclaim aloud with ab¬ 
horrence against such brutal and unrighteous 
doings ? Is it possible that there should be 
in the United States a man, or would he be 
worthy to bear the dignified name of man, 
where he so void of the feelings of humani¬ 
ty, as to purchase and make use of the labour 
of his fellow-citizens, his kindred and his 
friends, produced in the horrid manner above 
stated ? Would not every sympathetic heart, 
at the sight of a piece of sugar, or other 
article, that he believed to be the fruit of 


21 


their labour, produced with agonizing hearts 
and trembling limbs, be filled with anguish 
and his eyes gush with tears ? Would it not 
awaken in the feeling, unbiased mind, a sense 
of all the cruel sufferings above related? 
Would it not, instead of pleasing his palate, 
be deeply wounding to the heart ? and, if 
rightly considered, cause cries to arise from 
the bottom of his soul, in moving accents of 
supplication to the righteous Judge of heav¬ 
en and earth, that he would be graciously 
pleased to put a stop to such complicated 
misery and great distress of his creature 
man ? Would he not consider the individual 
who should dare to be so hardy as to traffic 
in, and use the produce of the labour of his 
fellow-citizens and friends, wrested from 
them in the cruel manner above stated, as 
the open and avowed enemy both of God 
and man ? 

But some, who have not given the subject 
a full and impartial discussion, may object 
and say, the slaves in the West-Indies and 
southern states, are not our fellow-citizens 
and friends. But it cannot be objected by 
the impartial and the just, who know, that 
although in a limited sense, as applied to a 
particular town or city, they may not be so, 
yet upon the general and universal scale of 
nature, they are our brethren ai d fellow crea¬ 
tures ; all privileged by nature and nature’s 
God, with liberty and free-agency, and with 


22 


the blessings attendant thereon ; of which 
they are not to be deprived, but by their own 
consent; and, therefore, have a right to de¬ 
mand of us the same justice and equity, as 
our feliow-citizens and friends, in a more 
limited, sense, as above stated, could have 
done ; and to whom we are accountable for 
every act of injustice and omission of doing 
to them as we would they should do unto us, 
and for which we shall all have to answer ere 
long, at the dread tribunal bar, that we can 
neither awe nor bribe, but shall receive a 
just retribution for all our works, whether 
good or evil. 

From a consideration of the foregoing 
Queries and Answers with the annexed ob¬ 
servations, may we not be led to conclude, 
that no man who is convinced of the cruelty 
and injustice of holding a fellow creature in 
slavery, can tiaffi in, or make use of the 
produce of a slave’s labour, believing it to 
be such, without criminating himself, and 
living in the open and daily breach of that 
most excellent Rule, given by the great 
Author of the Gospel Dispensation, as a just 
criterion of conduct : viz. “ All things what¬ 
soever ye would that men should do to 
you, do you even so to them, for this is 
the law and the propi ets.” 

“ The case now fully lies before us, and we 
have to make our choice, either to join our¬ 
selves with these Manufacturers of Human 


23 


Wo, or to renounce the horrid association. 
If we adopt the former, let us at least have 
the candour to avow our conduct in its real 
deformity. Let us no longer affect to de¬ 
plore the calamities attendant on slavery, of 
which we are the primary cause; nor let us 
pretend to execrate the conduct of the slave 
dealer, the slave holder, or the slave driver.” 


FINIS-. 












































A 





































































I 


♦ 


V 











